The University of Vermont opened a prototype extreme-weather monitoring station in Lyndonville on Tuesday, launching the first unit in what the university describes as a planned statewide network meant to improve how forecasts capture fast-developing storms. The station is designed to observe the lead-up to major weather events such as flooding or blizzards and to feed more localized measurements to the National Weather Service and state emergency response officials, UVM said.

Joshua Beneš, associate director of research facilities and networks at the UVM Water Resources Institute, said the goal is to extend warning time so local communities can react as conditions worsen. He said that even “a few hours more of lead time” before a flooding event escalates can have a significant impact on how a community responds.

Beneš also pointed to Vermont’s geography as a driver for more granular monitoring. He said the state is susceptible to smaller, isolated extreme weather, which can make it harder for existing observational systems to capture what is happening in time to support evacuations and other emergency actions.

Gabriel Langbauer, the meteorologist in charge at the National Weather Service regional office in Burlington, said Vermont’s weather radar and monitoring infrastructure is based mostly in Chittenden County, and that the Green Mountains can obstruct views of more rural parts of the state. He said the Lyndonville station was placed in a portion of the state most obstructed by Mount Mansfield’s impact on the line of sight to the main radar in Burlington.

Langbauer also described how gaps in radar observation have shown up in past storms. He said a storm that hit St. Johnsbury in 2024 was only partially captured by radar, and he warned that a small shift in where such a storm’s observations fall could mean forecasters miss the flood entirely.

The station that opened Tuesday is about 10 meters tall and is intended as the prototype for the next stations in the network. UVM said the first tower was funded with support from the Leahy Institute for Rural Partnerships, and it said the university is still procuring sites for the remaining stations. UVM’s plan calls for roughly 20 stations statewide, with the aim of building enough data density to study weather phenomena that can be too small to appear clearly in current radar coverage.

Beyond recording standard weather metrics like rainfall, the system will also measure soil moisture levels, Beneš said, and UVM said the soil data is intended to improve flood prediction. The university said that more detailed observations can also support longer-term flood mitigation work, including identifying where floodplain restoration projects may be most effective.

Stephanie Smith, deputy director at Vermont Emergency Management, said the network helps the state reduce long-term future flood risk. UVM said the data will also be usable for decisions by the state’s Dam Safety Program and the Vermont Agency of Transportation, including water-management planning and road-condition considerations during weather events.

UVM said the monitoring could have additional uses beyond emergencies, including supporting research on the effects of climate change and serving as an educational resource for meteorology students at Vermont State University’s Lyndonville campus. Beneš said some of the research stations could be built on local school grounds, and he said he hopes that will help introduce younger students to meteorology.